A vehicle is provided with a tachometer for indicating the number of rotations of an engine, and a driver can recognize the number of rotations of the engine by checking the display of the tachometer. A tachometer is generally controlled on the basis of signals from a sensor that detects the actual number of rotations of the engine. For example, the value of the actual number of rotations of the engine or a value corrected by eliminating a minute fluctuation from the actual number of rotations is displayed on the tachometer. A technique is proposed which provides a tachometer display expected by a driver when an automatic transmission is shifted, by displaying, on the tachometer, a virtual number of rotations independent of the actual number of rotations of the engine upon the shift change (e.g., refer to Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2015-161654).
In the meantime, the display of the tachometer abruptly changes when the actual number of rotations of the engine surges at a start of the vehicle. Because the actual movement of the vehicle is slow, however, there is an inconsistency between the acceleration feeling felt by the driver (moderate vehicle behavior) and the display of the tachometer, which may create a sense of mismatch (the sense of rotations being too high) in the driver. In such a case, the actual number of rotations of the engine is already increased, but the vehicle accelerates gradually. As a result, the display of the tachometer remains stuck at a high level of the actual number of rotations, which may also create a sense of mismatch (the sense of engine rotations remaining stuck at a high level).